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The Spiritual Significance of the Holy Days, Part 4

The Third Holy Day:  The Day of Pentecost

 [Study Aired September 5, 2025]

Lev 23:15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Lev 23:16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17  Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
Lev 23:18  And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.
Lev 23:19  Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
Lev 23:20  And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
Lev 23:21  And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
Lev 23:22  And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Before we get into our study on the spiritual significance of the Day of Pentecost, let’s remind ourselves what all these holy days are intended to accomplish.

Here are some of Paul’s thoughts concerning the holy days and the law of which they are a part:

Col 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Heb 8:1  Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb 8:2  A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
Heb 8:3  For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
Heb 8:4  For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

This third feast, Pentecost, and all that is revealed about this feast, signifies “the true tabernacle, the church which is the Lord’s body” with all that is revealed about who we are and all the functions we perform in service to the Lord and the fulfilling of His plan for mankind.

This feast of Pentecost is the day on which the New Testament church was born:

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

This is the only feast in all the year when an offering is made with leaven.

Lev 23:15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Lev 23:16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17  Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

A “meat offering… baken with leaven” was indeed “a new offering” with ‘new’ significance. This is the only day a meal offering was to be “baken with leaven.” That ‘leaven’ in this offering on this holy day signifies the fact that while Christ, our spotless sacrifice, “was made sin which knew no sin”, His body, His firstfruits are not spotless, and they do ‘know sin’ and are all guilty of trespassing against our Lord’s words. That is the spiritual significance of the “two loaves baken with leaven” which were offered only on the day of Pentecost.

This is the only harvest which includes the instructions to leave the gleanings and the corners of your fields for “the poor and the stranger.”

Lev 23:22  And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

These instructions which make provision for the less fortunate in Israel are mentioned many times in relation to “the fatherless and the widow and the poor”, but this is the only feast where “the poor and the stranger” are singled out for making provision for them.

It was on the day of the first Pentecost after the death and resurrection of our Lord that “strangers” are mentioned as those who heard the gospel of our Lord for the first time:

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

Pentecost is the only holy day which specifically makes provision for “the poor and the stranger”, for ‘poor’ Lazarus who ate of the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table and for ‘the strangers’, the Samaritan woman at the well, and Cornelius the Roman centurion.

Deu 10:19  Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

This is the only holy day which foreshadows the fiftieth year of jubilee, the year of release when all debts are forgiven and every man returns to his inheritance. This is a ‘blessed and holy’ holy day, because it signifies and celebrates the birth and the work of the ‘Saviors on Mount Zion’ (Oba 1:21).

To begin to understand and appreciate the great spiritual significance of the day of Pentecost, we must first realize that the root number of this holy day is the number five which signifies grace through faith.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Here is the link to that study:

The Number Five

The gift of grace through faith is first given to the Lord’s firstfruits. That is why Pentecost is also called “the feast of the firstfruits of thy labors.” Pentecost is the holy day which celebrates those who, with our Lord, are “a kind of firstfruits”.

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep [1] the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And [2] the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and [3] the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

Exo 34:22  And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

The wave-sheaf offering on the first day after the sabbath during the days of unleavened bread foreshadows and signifies the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our offering being accepted by His Father as first of ‘the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in Christ’:

1Co 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  

Christ was intended by His Father to be given preeminence in all things including being the first of the firstfruits. He was never intended to be the only ‘firstfruit.’

While there was no leaven in the offering of the wave sheaf, there is leaven in the offering of the firstfruits of the “two loaves” of the Pentecost offering. Both are of “finely ground flour”, but the Pentecost offering is “baken with leaven.”

Lev 23:15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; [signifying Christ as the first of the firstfruits] seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Lev 23:16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17  Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

“The church which is His body” (Col 1:14) is referred as “firstfruits” by Paul and James and John:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Paul alludes to himself and other members of the church as those “which have the firstfruits of the spirit”:

Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

He refers to Epaenetus and Stephanas as “the firstfruits of Achaia”:

Rom 16:5  Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.

1Co 16:15  I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)

Psa 107:2  Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

Finally John also calls the church of this present time, signified by the number 144,000, “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb.”

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

 ‘The church, which is the body of Christ (Col 1:24) was birthed “when the day of Pentecost was fully come” (Act 2:1). This holy day signifies those who are the first to believe on Christ and who are referred to as “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” here in Revelation 14:4 and throughout the New Testament where those who are first are always mentioned as being  special to the Lord.

Both Paul and John emphasize the exceptional blessing and favor placed by the Lord upon those “who first trusted in Christ.”

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

It is those “who first trusted in Christ” who will come up in “the resurrection of life” and be given to have a part in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection.”

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [at the beginning of the thousand year reign, (Rev 20:6)]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [at the great white throne judgment, (Rev 20:11-15)]

Pentecost is the only feast to specifically make provision for the fatherless and the poor, both of which signify the New Testament Gentile church which has now become part of the commonwealth  of Israel because Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between the Jewish and Gentile Christians and has made of both one new man, so making peace (Eph 2:15).

Pentecost signifies the salvation of the church in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), but the counting of seven sabbaths until the morrow after the seventh sabbath signifies the completion of the time needed as carnal babes in Christ, to bring us to true conversion on the day of Pentecost. This is what Christ said to Peter at the Passover meal the night he was apprehended of the Jews at the very beginning of time which is signified by these seven sabbaths which followed the Passover and culminated in the fiftieth day, the day of Pentecost:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Of course, Peter, who at this stage in maturing signifies us as “carnal babes in Christ”, did deny His Lord during this time of seven sabbaths until the day of Pentecost. Pentecost is Greek for ‘count fifty.’ ‘Pente’ is ‘fifty’, and ‘cost’ is ‘count.’ Seven sevens are required to bring us to acknowledge our part in the crucifixion of our Lord, to deny Him, to weep bitterly in repentance, to live in fear of our lives and to be tried of the Lord who raises up the stormy winds of life, and brings us to our wits’ end, as He did with the apostles during that period of time immediately following the Passover. Before the day of Pentecost and the gift of the holy spirit dwelling within us, we are all “carnal babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4), afraid for our lives, worried about what our families and friends will think of us, locking our doors and going fishing to avoid having to witness for the Lord. After the day of Pentecost and having the holy spirit now living within us, we are all as brave as a lion and do not let fear keep us from standing up and confessing that we do indeed know Christ and His Father, and we are not ashamed to say that we are His elect.

It was after Pentecost that Peter and all the apostles were dragged before the Sanhedrin, and this time none of them denied their Lord:

Act 5:17  Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,
Act 5:18  And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.
Act 5:19  But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,
Act 5:20  Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.
Act 5:21  And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
Act 5:22  But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned, and told,
Act 5:23  Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.
Act 5:24  Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.
Act 5:25  Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.
Act 5:26  Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.
Act 5:27  And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
Act 5:28  Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
Act 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

We have no idea how the Lord performed this miracle, but we know He did, and we know these apostles are not the same men who were hiding in fear behind locked doors before the day of Pentecost. Pentecost signifies the giving of the holy spirit, and the holy spirit gives us the mind of Christ who wants nothing but to please His Father and do the things He has given Him to do. Christ was sent to save the world and that the world through Him might be saved:

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Christ, with His Father’s approval has sent us to do what His Father sent Him to do:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. [“That the world through [you] might be saved… [you in Christ are] the propitiation… for the sins of the whole world”]

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

It is at Pentecost that we are given our backbone and are given to fear God rather than men (Act 5:29).

This concludes our study on the day of Pentecost. The next step in the Lord’s plan for our salvation is signified by the Day of Trumpets which will be the subject of our next study.

[The next study in this series can be found here.]